Indigenous Leaders Sound Alarm Over Partial Veto Of Brazil's "Devastation Bill": Blow To Land Rights, Forests & Climate

Saturday, 9 August 2025, 12:43 pm
Press Release: Burness

Only three months before the United Nations climate talks (COP30) take place in Belem, Brazil, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has partially passed legislation that is expected to unleash higher rates of deforestation--and greater threats to Indigenous communities living there. The bill rolls back strict environmental licensing rules that have kept destruction of the world’s largest rainforest in check.

While Lula struck down some aspects of the bill, including stipulations that would strip Indigenous Peoples of veto power over economic activities on their lands, the overall threats to forests and Indigenous Peoples remain.

Dinamam Tuxá, of the Tuxá Peoples from Bahia, Pernambuco, and Minas Gerais, and the Executive Coordinator of APIB and a lawyer for APOINME, said:

''At his inauguration, President Lula made a public commitment to Indigenous Peoples and to the protection of the environment. In light of that, it was essential that he fully veto the so-called “Devastation Bill.”

This bill represents a serious attack from a Congress that has consistently shown itself to be hostile to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to the environmental agenda. Now, the responsibility for this law lies with Congress, which continues to push forward measures that violate constitutional rights and put the future of the planet at risk.''

More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2508/S00112/indigenous-leaders-sound-alarm-over-partial-veto-of-brazils-devastation-bill-blow-to-land-rights-forests-climate.htm